THE LADIES* MAGAZINE OP GARDENING. 
323 
which a very small portion remains, and the country people still com¬ 
memorate the legend of the wood at Dunsinane, by walking in procession 
on the 24th of June, with birch houghs in their hands. The procession 
is said to have taken place every year for the last seven hundred years, 
and to be the oldest procession in Scotland. The garden wall at this 
place is built with battlements, like the boundary wall of a tower. A 
terrace walk is now forming in the garden inclosed by this wall, with 
Irish yews planted at regular distances on both sides. The greenhouse 
is remarkable for having the sides of brick instead of glass, in order to 
conceal the gardener when at work. On a sloping bank, near the remains 
of the old castle, are some pear-trees which are said to be three hundred 
years old ; and near the wall is a tower sixty feet high, from which it is 
said North Berwick Law and Stirling Castle can both be seen. 
After we left Dunimarle we proceeded by a fine road, with splendid 
and varying prospects of t the Ochil hills, past Clackmannan tower, and 
the walls of Lord Mar’s park, to Alva, the seat of —■—* Johnston, Esq. 
Nothing can be more beautiful than the woods of this extensive domain, 
situated as they are on the side of the Ochil hills, and commanding a 
splendid view of Stirling Castle and the windings of the Forth. These 
beautiful woods are intersected with numerous broad dry walks, in which, 
by the kindness of Mr. Johnston, the inhabitants of the neighbouring town 
are permitted to walk at pleasure. 
Augusts.— Stirling to Airthrie Castle, Deanston, and Blair-Drummond. 
■—We had passed Airthrie Castle on the road from Alloa to Stirling, but 
it was too dark to visit it; and after sleeping at the Royal Hotel, Stirling, 
an excellent inn, we proceeded to it. The approach was very fine, from 
the admirable effect of the water, which was introduced with great skill, 
and the fine old trees with which it was bounded. The kitchen-garden 
was perfect as regarded neatness, and the fine quality of the fruit. The 
whole place was indeed in admirable order. In the flower-garden 
Maurandya Barclayana and other ornamental climbers were trained 
over fir-trees stripped of their bark, and looked remarkably well. The 
ruined kirk of Loggie produced a very good effect when seen from the 
garden; and adjoining it was a cottage, the sole remains of what was 
once the village of Loggie. This place was the property of the old woman, 
Ellen Smith, who inhabited it, and she, like her dwelling, was the last of 
her race. She had lived there with three brothers and one sister, all 
unmarried; but they had all died, and she was now left alone. One 
brother, who had survived the others, had been a hedger, and very 
ingenious in turnery; and Ellen, who is strongly gifted with the organ of 
order, preserves his work-shop with admirable care. Every tool is clean 
